Attention
by Py-Cries
Summary: Normal. The tiny word defined Handa's life - was it to weird to expect a bit more?
1. Chapter Endou Chapter Kazemaru

Attention

As of lately, Handa felt like he was just blending in with the whole school body, not having the tiniest trait that made him different. He had been okay with just living the life, playing soccer with the Raimon soccer club, doing his homework more or less okay and sometimes going into town with some of his friends. To put it simple, a normal life. But he became tired that this tiny, tiny word seemingly described his whole being, _normal_.

Was he really that uninteresting?

The first time he had asked himself that question was when they had to fill out self-evaluation-test at school. Every student got two sheets of paper, one to fill out themselves and the other for their deskneighbour. The sheets contained the standard "does apply very much/does not apply at all"-scales for rating different traits like how social one was or if one was very determined.

When Handa got the sheet from his neighbour and saw that nearly every checkmark was placed in the middle of the scale, he was at a loss of words. He surely was not _that_ plain.

* * *

To his dismay a similar case arose about a week later when he was put on a group with Max for art class. The homework consisted of making a portfolio that should introduce their partner. Apparently this should be of help for the next step of the project for which the class should structure their thoughts about their partner and maybe expand their knowledge with a few facts.

As Handa sat with his friend at the kitchen table, both working on the portfolio, he noticed something. While his fingers were sticky with glue from trying to stick some baby pictures of his friend onto the sheet, Max had not even touched his.

Handa blinked. "What's wrong?", he asked.

Max looked up and laughed sheepishly. "You know, I actually have no idea what I should put onto this thing about you."

Needless to say, Handa was pissed for the rest of the afternoon.

After Max went home (he had followed Handa's example and glued some pictures of Baby-Handa onto the sheet of paper) Handa mulled himself into his blanket, fully sinking into the soft fabric. If not even his friends saw something else than the normal kid from the soccer club, there was definitely a need for some drastic measures. He would show them that he was _somebody._

His mother burst into the room.

"Shinichi! Did you already brush your teeth? I. Don't. Think. So."

Handa suppressed the urge to groan loudly but deemed it safe to at least roll his eyes at the housedragon.

Handa had his plan set. All of his teammates had fans throughout the school while he did not even get recognized on the corridors most of the time. He would diagnose why _they _were someone while he was not.

* * *

**1** Endou managed to gather people around him for his very bright personality. Handa had experienced it himself. After a few years of being a invisible player on the elementary school team he had actually bid his farewell to the sport. Maybe it was not exactly his thing. But seeing Endou run around the whole school (he even dared to access the 9th-grade building as a _first-year_), trying to get members for the refound soccer club, he was tempted.

Out of curiosity he did stop by the clubroom one afternoon with Someoka, one of his classmates. When shaking Endou's hand he could practically feel the glow the other radiated off – he could not say no, he had to stay with that person.

So maybe, if he was able to show that he was also as dazzling, people would recognize him. Handa was by no means a bad or grumpy person, he actually though of himself to be nice around, it was just that nobody went out of their way to notice him.

He was going to be more social.

* * *

But as the next day came around, Handa woke up to the noise of a storm raging outside, constantly shaking his shutters. Of course he still had to go to school anyway.

After a meager breakfast ("That's what you get for not brushing your teeth yesterday.") he set off to Raimon. The second he stepped out on the street full of deep puddles his umbrella, the one with the little ducks printed on, decided that this was the best moment to break and turn inside out. Supposing that this was better than no umbrella, Handa hurried on to get to school at least a bit dry.

He was mistaken.

He entered the building soaked from head to toe. Trying to not look like a complete loser, the midfielder cooly walked to his locker, just to slither on the wet ground and fall flat onto his face.

All the kids in the entrance hall laughed. Well, at least he got some attention.

After Handa had heaved himself off the wet floor, he decided to do something about his equally wet clothes. Adding to the sheer amount of luck he had today, Raimon's midfielder found his sweat suit that had been in his bag to be just as soaked as his uniform. He better run to find one of his friends to hopefully lend him a dry one.

Handa made his way up the staircase to the first floor where the classrooms were. He hoped the school's caretaker did not find out that he was responsible for all the puddles in the corridors.

Entering his classroom he quickly scanned it for his friends. A pink and blue hat caught his attention.

"Max! Can you lend me your sweat suit?", he called while making his way through the rows.

Max looked up and that was the moment that the boy himself was wearing a blue and yellow uniform – the soccer clubs sweat suit.

"Well, I'm sorry, I'd rather not run around naked", answered Max, gesturing towards his clothes.

"You got soaked, too, huh?"

"Yep. Damn the Japanese spring."

…

"So, what am I gonna do now?", Handa asked somewhat panicky.

And so he ran around the whole school looking for somebody who had some dry clothes he could borrow. But it seemed like nobody had bothered to bring their swear suits since most club activities were canceled due to the weather. It was finally thanks to Kazemaru who had found his old track team clothes that he was able to sit at least somewhat dry (although freezing) in his classroom.

The teacher wrote a surprise test.

* * *

**2** Maybe trying to be happy and social was not exactly his thing. Handa wondered how Endou did it all the time even though there was hardly any reason to be in the hard life of a middle school student. Especially if you were Handa.

He checked Endou's name on his "How-to-get-attention"-plan and shifted his eyes to the next number. Two.

Kazemaru was famous at Raimon for his rather good looks and beautiful long hair. Handa did not want to grow out his brown hair but figured that maybe it would be nice to have a change of pace. His hairstyle was almost too normal compared to his schoolmates'.

Groggily Handa heaved himself off his bed and headed downstairs to the living room. He swiftly checked if any family members were around but apparently the house belonged to him right now. Crouching down in front of the couch table he put aside the TV magazine and found what he was looking for. His mothers fashion and styling magazines. Maybe he could find some inspiration for a new haircut?

He browsed through the glossies for about an hour and was rather terrified with what some people did to their hair. Apparently _undercuts_ were the newest thing, no thank you, not with him. He would rather shave off his whole head Someoka-style – no half-assed stuff. It would probably look good on him and it suited the men who were posing for the camera but it was simply not him.

At that moment the clattering of the front door announced his older brother's return so he quickly stuffed the magazines back in place before greeting him.

* * *

A new morning arrived and Handa had not come a step further with his hair problem. Maybe a totally new haircut was a to drastic change?

While brushing his teeth his eyes wandered over his cosmetics basket (manly cosmetics like deodorant, a nail clipper etc, mind you). There also was a small tube of hair gel – he had never used it before, his brother had brought it home for him one day.

Maybe he could try _that_.

Fixing his hair had taken longer then Hand had thought (Oh God, he sounded like a _girl_) and now he was running late. Just his luck that the traffic lights decided to switch to red just as he wanted to cross the street. Now he was jumping up and down at the cross-walk, next to him a giggling group of girls from a middle school he did not know.

A bit stressed he ran his hand through his hair, liking how fluffy it was (he had only settled for a minimal amount of hair gel, just making it stand up a bit) when one of the girls tipped his shoulder. Handa turned around to look at her – she was very pretty. Had he done something wrong?

"You're from Raimon, aren't you?", she asked.

"Uhm, yes."

"I'm from Machida Middle School! I guess we don't live that far apart then! My name is Masuyo Itou, call me some time?" With that the gave him a small sheet of paper with a neatly written phone number on it and crossed the street, following her friends who giggled non-stop.

_Had he just been hit on?_

Handa just stood dumbfounded at the cross-walk, staring after the pretty girl. Unfortunately he had stared to long and the lights switched back to red.

* * *

Thank God he played soccer everyday or else he probably had been late to school. Handa managed to slip into the classroom right before the last bell rang.

After two hours of homeroom the class had a short break. Max practically jump off his seat and dashed back to Handa's.

"What are you doing?", he hissed in a low voice and gestured towards the midfielder's hair. That was the first time Handa had seen the boy so distressed and that was saying something, considering the fact that they had been together in one hospital room for a room with completely battered bodies.

"What...?"

"You look like you just ATE the Aliea Crystal, don't kid with me!"

Oh. OH. Handa had been aware of the fact that the malicious crystal had not only improved their physical abilities back then but also altered their looks. But who would have guessed he would receive a similar effect looks-wise if he used a bit of hair-gel? That could seriously prove a problem. The whole school had seen the match Raimon VS Dark Emperors on TV and now they probably thought he had suffered a setback. All because of a bit of hair gel.

Handa slumped across his desk. Max patted his had sympathetically. That did not stop him from barging into the clubroom before training and declaring that "Dark Handa" had returned.


	2. Chapter Kabeyama Chapter Kageno

**3** People could say about Kabeyama what they wanted. That he was a coward, that he surely neglected training judging by his strong stature, that he still continued to run to the toilet before every soccer match – he could achieve everything he actually put his will in. He had proven it several times, the first time with the Inazuma Otoshi. His arising career in the soccer youth league just underlined this fact.

Kabeyama might have been whiny but he was also headstrong. He would try and try, find the limit to his own abilities, break down and carry on. All to not disappoint his teammates. It was a trait that Handa lacked. For him it was good enough if his own abilities were counted as good enough if they did their job without any extras. Handa did not see any need to be good at everything, it was too much work. He was not a shooting star with the best grades like Kidou nor was he a total loser who was close to failing (dare he say, like Endou who spent long study nights with Kazemaru over mathematical formulas, not that Endou was a loser but his grades were speaking for themselves) – Shinichi Handa was normal.

And again this reminded him of his older brother. He managed to get top of his class most of the times in any subjects that were somehow related to science like chemistry or biology. While he lacked the same talent in anything close to languages, at least he had something he was good at. Handa did not. Because he was the ordinary, boring sibling who had the talent to at least not fail.

Out of this situation and the fact that Handa's new plan formed. If he was not even able to shine as somebody popular or good-looking, he would show people he was smart. Shinichi Handa would sit down on his sorry ass and study until it fell off. The next maths test was the perfect opportunity.

* * *

"Shinichi! Come down this instant and take out the trash!"

"But Mom! I'm studying!"

"Don't kid with me, you never study!"

Handa sighed. How he hated across-stories-shouting-matches with his mother. Through closed doors no less. Normally he would trudge down the stairs lazily at the first shout, not wanting to anger her more. But today was an exception. Today he was the one to study, to get a good grade and his brother could be the one to take care of the chores. Today he was not only motivated but also rebellious. Against his own mother, the dragon – a dragon much scarier than Smaug of the Lonely Mountain.

Simple equations were the new topic in class and so far he had been able to understand what the lessons had covered. With a bit of practice and after working out some examples from the maths book, Handa was sure to surprise everybody with more than his usual 65 (in words: average) percent.

"Shinichi!" His mother threw open the door to his room, resulting in his sportsbag which hung behind the door to fall to the floor and spill its contents across it. The woman stopped in her tracks when she saw her son sitting at his desk, startled by the loud noise (actually he was crawling under his desk to retrieve the pencil he had thrown away out of surprise). "You actually are studying", his mother noted. Her eyes narrowed, slowly observing her son, clearly not knowing what to say. She thew him a last glance while Handa braced himself for the inevitable shout before she turned on her heels and left the blue painted room. Handa could hear her pestering his brother about the garbage in the next room (which must have been a first, considering it was Handa's task) and the older boy's complaints.

* * *

Never before had Handa felt so positive about a test – he had been able to at least write something for every question on the sheet and it had even made sense! And all that in Maths. Maths! He would definitely score sky-high. (Or at least in the "good" category.) And also never before had Handa ever look forward to getting back a test. The whole week his mood was as good as the weather was bad. He excelled at his short quiz in English where even he usually had troubles to reach an ordinary result and even managed that his Rolling Kick had somehow ended up as something like a weaker version of Odin Sword. Handa still did not have the slightest idea how that had happened – the team had been equally stunned. Endou had forgotten to bring out a hissatsu and had to leave practice with a badly bruised face. Even though he had insisted that he was completely fine and had complemented Handa's shoot while trying to fend off the managers who had come to his aid with an army of ice packs.

When their maths teacher finally entered the classroom with a stack of papers, her heels clicking on the wooden floor, Handa could not suppress a grin – here came the proof of his intelligence and motivation. For the last week he had focused his whole existence on one single thing – this test.

Since the midfield sat at the back, it took quite a while for his teacher to finally arrive at his seat. Whenever she returned the tests to a good student or those who managed to exceed her expectations this time, she gave them a tiny but warm smile. It was rare and Handa had never managed to elicit one before.

The woman fished out his sheet from the stack and placed it wordlessly on his desk. Without the smile. Handa glanced at the top right corner. 69. Average.

* * *

**4** Handa was devastated to say the least. He had studied for hours every day but only to improve his resulted in the damned subject by four points. What exactly was studying good for if it resulted in the same thing? So maybe motivation was not Handa's strong point. Kabeyama's name was crossed from the list. And next was...

Kageno.

Handa eyed the name shortly before shaking his head and crossing it out, too. While he was desperate to be noticed, he was not _that _invisible yet.


	3. Chapter Kurimatsu Chapter Shourin

**5 **If Handa had to honest, sometimes he thought that Kurimatsu was more of a sassy shit than Max. And Max was bad. But as annoying as it was, it managed humor people. Whenever Kurimatsu called Kabeyama a whiny, giant baby (or teased Handa for being too much of a klutz which was a lot too frequent in his opinion) it made the team laugh. Every crisis could be overcome with laughter.

Humor was the best way to entertain people and if you managed to entertain people, they noticed you. As of until now Handa had been one to laugh with people rather than make them laugh (if you did not count the times people laughed about him – really, people had the talent to notice him in his most unfortunate moments), but a few harmless jokes could add to his natural charm, right? Yeah, that was a good plan.

* * *

"Yo momma's so stupid, she got hit by a parked car!"

Handa was not exactly sure what had led to this situation but Kurimatsu, Shishido and Max were bombarding each other with "yo momma"-jokes.

"Yo momma's so old, she has the autographed version of the Bible!"

Some of them were so absurd, Handa did not know what to say. When an especially weird one fell, even Kidou (who was in a strategic meeting with Endou and Gouenji) snorted. And Kidou was not even comfortable with that topic (Handa was tempted to ask them to stop since two members of their team did not even have a mother). When that could even humor someone like him though, maybe this was the perfect chance for Handa.

The only problem was that Handa was not good at coming up fast retorts (at least retorts that exceeded something like "I'm gonna give you - !"). He wracked his brain to come up with something but he really could not. Maybe -

"Yo momma is so dumb she tripped over a cordless phone!"

"Your mother pulls catapults to Gondor!"

Everybody's heads turned towards Handa (even the new members were surprised) and a for Handa uncomfortable silence ensued. That had actually been a creative one! Why were they looking at him that way? Had that been too weird?

Kurimatsu was the first one to speak up:"What."

"I didn't get that one."

"What the hell is Gondor?"

Handa gave a nervous laugh. "Never read Lord of the Rings?"

"No", Kurimatsu deadpanned.

"Handa The-Mood-Killer Shinichi is back in action!", Max laughed.

"Shut up", Handa muttered while turning away from the scene.

Shishido sighed. "I think you don't understand the high art of yo-momma-jokes. They need to be so low that you don't need any previous knowledge to understand them."

Handa saw himself doomed as his underclassmen gathered around him to teach him the "high art". Aki giggled nervously.

* * *

**7 **Shourin's soccer was special. His fluid but strong and controlled movements were characteristical. His love for martial arts, especially, Kung Fu, reflected in his way of soccer. Shourin once said that both sports were an important part of him – he could not live without the other, they completed him.

Handa wondered if maybe another hobby besides his pretty half-assed soccer would be something for him. It would definitely make him more interesting, he would be mor than the normal boy from the soccer club. He could be the normal boy from the soccer club that wrote poems. Or something.

No, rather not. Poems were mushy. Handa preferred being normal over being a wuss. He would search for something different (besides language was not exactly his forte). Quickly he got up from his bed which had become his fulcrum of thinking and headed over to his computer to turn it on. The internet would surely bring him enlightenment. Whatever you typed into Google, it would give you an answer.

His old computer roared with the volume of a plane engine. Handa had gotten his father's old one when he had decided that the old thing did not fit his standards anymore. To be honest, Handa dreaded touching the thing – the loud noises it made could not possibly be healthy. Neither were the sparks every time you plugged it in. After what seemed to be forever the welcome screen lit up and Handa logged in.

The computer protested a bit when Handa clicked the Internet Explorer right after the desktop showed and froze. Handa sighed. Maybe he should ask his father (his mother would flip) for a new one. Luckily Google was his starting screen or he would have waited another eternity for it to load.(The computer had unfrozen by now.)

Handa searched for "hobby ideas" and "hobby test" and came across a site which apparently tested for which activity you were suited best. Quickly he filled out the self-evaluation-test (deja vu!) and clicked on the red "Go!" button. Patiently he waited for his old machine to process.

As expected most results had about 50 percent accordance (deja vu). He scrolled own to see that soccer was somewhere at the bottom of the list. But what surprised him most was the fact that proudly on top of the list with 80 percent stood baking.

Baking. Who did they think he was? Zeke from High School Musical? (Not that Handa had seen the movie, of course.) But instead of playing basketball, he played soccer and Endou would start singing while practicing his newest goalkeeper move... wait, his thoughts had strayed. But Handa could not stop humming "Get cha head in the game" for the rest of the day.

* * *

Handa had dismissed that short episode and managed to forget about it for several days. That was until Max' birthday came around and Handa wanted to do something special for him. Of course, the soccer club members had pooled together some money to buy some presents but him and Max had gotten rather close over the past year and he felt obliged to do something more. They would have a small gift exchange after training but it would not feel right without a cake.

And if this website thought that baking was his thing, why not give it a shot?

His family had a small, handwritten notebook, full of different recipes that had been passed down since generations. There should be something easy enough even for him who managed to mess up cooking rice. Everybody liked a plain spice cake. (Plain – his catchword.)

According to the recipe he even had all the ingredients he needed: flour, eggs, sugar, butter, cocoa, baking soda and a range of different spices. Things they usually had around anyway. While rummaging through the cabinets Handa even found some couverture for topping and colourful sprinkles for decoration.

Handa had already baked quite a few times in his life but he was far from a master confectioner. Sometimes he managed to burn it and the one time he tried cream gateau the cream had been too fluid and had soaked the layers and practically swam away. (His mother had named it the ladle-gateau as they practically had to spoon the cake.) But today Handa had chosen a simple recipe, so everything should be fine.

And fine it was. The dough had just the right structure and its taste was good as far as Handa could tell. It was kind of strong but that would probably fade during the baking process... he hoped.

Handa spread the dough on the baking sheet (using a baking pan would result in too few slices) and placed it in the oven. Max would love it.

* * *

Transporting the cake proved itself as a bit of a problem because of course Handa had chosen yesterday as the day to bring home his soccer uniform and sweat suit for his mother to wash, so he had to take it with him additionally to his school bag.

He carefully balanced the baking tray in both hands (some elementary school kids nearly ran him over – they looked suspiciously a lot like Inazuma KFC members) and walked to school. Today was finally warm again, maybe he should put the cake into the clubroom's fridge (the managers kept ingredients to spice up the onigiri there), so the chocolate would not melt.

The cherry trees finally stood full in bloom, the winter had been long and the trees' winter sleep had lasted long into April. The scene was like a cliché first school day anime scene. And Handa walked through the streets with a colourfully sprinkled cake, trying to blow the cherry blossom petals out of his face.

Cheerful voices in the air announced that the school was close. Since the sun had shown its face, it seemed like the student body had started to live. The new first years had finally begun to see the beauty that lay in their school and run around the grounds noisily (Toramaru was often among the, Handa noted bemused). Quickly Handa slid into the rundown clubroom – I twas newly built, why did it still look so bad? Sometimes Handa had the feeling, the chairman had rescued all the dust they had horded from the ruins of their clubhouse and dumped it in the new one. It was weird to see it so empty right now – it was supposed to be loud and full of people. The fridge stood abandoned in the corner.

Once Handa opened its door, he was greeted with lots of vegetables and fruits and juices and wondered why exactly it was all in there when all the managers ever made for them were onigiri and sports drinks. Maybe Natsumi liked to experiment with the stuff, everybody save your life!

After a bit of repositioning and sorting out (was that Kurimatsu's lunch from a month ago?) Handa was finally able to cramp in the baking tray. Maybe they should invest into a second one – they were (finally) a big club after all. The track and field club even owned three (Handa knew from the old times when they would sometimes get Kazemaru to train with them).

Max better be grateful for all the extra work he did for him.

* * *

"Happy Birthday!"

They were sweaty and tired but celebrating was something Raimon could do even after the hardest soccer match or the most exhausting practice. Cups were clinked, well it was only a dull sound but plastic cups was all they had, and everybody congratulated Max to turning 15. The midfielder did not look like it but was actually one of the oldest members together with Someoka, Gouenji and Kazemaru.

The managers had served his cake without thinking (Handa doubted they knew that he made the cake, his plan to gain attention did not go well right now) and everybody had a slice but nobody had tried it yet, except Shadow who had suspiciously poked it with his fork.

"A speech, Matsuno-sempai!", Shourin shouted from his position on Kabeyama's shoulder. The rest of the soccer club cheered. Endou pushed Max to one of the few stools standing around and Max climbed up. He held up his hands in and appeasing gesture.

"Thank you, guys, for setting all this up, it means a lot to me! A big thanks to the managers who supply us with drinks and cake!" Everybody applauded the four girls.

"Cake? I though you brought it along, Max", Aki said in a surprised tone. Max froze on the chair and blinked at the motherly manager. "I didn't."

Handa knew that was probably the point he should say something but when Shishido shouted: "Maybe it was a secret admirer!", he bit back the words he was about to say. Secret admirer, like hell he was.

"Maybe we shouldn't eat it", Kageno murmured from behind Handa. Since when was he even standing there?

Handa cleared his throat. "No need to panic, I made the cake." All heads turned around to look at him. Looking, more like staring. Like he came from the moon (or had tried to style his hair again).

"You bake?", Kidou finally spoke and gave him a calculating look (well, he always looked calculating with his goggles).

"Well, um, yeah, kind of, I guess." Handa was sure he was blushing beet-red because of all the stares right now – why would they not stop staring already?

"That's kinda girly, senpai", Kabeyama said lamely.

"You don't have to eat it!", Handa snapped, it's not like he stood in the kitchen for hours for his own entertainment! And here they were, not appreciating his hard work. See if he would do anything for them again.

Max coughed to direct the attention back to himself. "So, I guess this calls for an applause for my hard working housewife who supplied us with this wonderful cake."

The roomed burst with laughter, even the ever cool Gouenji let out a snort and Shadow could not suppress a grin. Housewife? What on earth?

Promptly Handa's blush returned. Huffing he turned around and crossed his arms. Ungrateful pack.

* * *

"Maybe you should practice more."

"I'll never bake again anyway, Max."

After a lot of teasing everybody had tried to cake. Max and Handa were currently walking home since Max had announced that he needed to go home to celebrate with his family.

"You left it in the oven so long, it was as crunchy as cornflakes."

"Shut up."


End file.
